As a review there are two ways a web page can get indexed by Google. Either it’s “on-page” or “off-page” factors.
On-page factors = page title, meta tags, alt tags, H1 header tags, content, keyword density, and location of keywords. Also, a good site map and proper intra-linking techniques within the site.
Off-page factors are how the rest of the internet links to you, more specifically, your web page in question. This is usually the home or “index” page but quite often it will be multiple pages in larger sites.
Google ranks individual web pages not entire web sites. Yahoo attempted to rank sites back in the 90’s with their directory and failed miserably. Google stepped in and has never looked back.
So when you say you want to get “ranked” in Google, what you really want is to get a web page of yours, probably your home page, to come up for a particular search term on page 1 of Google’s “organic” or non-paid search results on the left hand side.
Off-page factors, those who link to you, carry more weight in Google’s ranking algorithms than do on-page factors. But don’t you need good, solid content for Google to crawl? Yes. But let’s say Google ranked pages in order of importance for any given keyword or search term based on what the page is, what it says, its layout, the out going links it has. Page “A” is number 1 for the term poker cards and accessories. All anyone would have to do is look at what Google ranks number 1 and pretty much copy it. If the total sum of that page is good enough for Google, then a duplicate or similar page should rank as well.
Of course this would be a disaster for Google. Anyone can create a web page and create the content that goes into it. What then differentiates the “importance” of one page over another for Google? Links.
The cornerstone of Google’s philosophy are links and their tendency to telegraph the relevance of a page to a term. Google is tasked with indexing millions of pages a day. It has to not only record fresh content from old pages, it needs to document new content from new pages. Then, it also needs to filter out machine-generated “spammy” pages as well as those pages geared up to trick the search engines with keyword stuffing, invisible text, etc.
What Google believes, right or wrong, is that the importance of a page is in direct relation to the quantity and quality of the other pages that link to it.
Whether you personally agree with this assessment by Google or not, it is the most relevant factor in determining getting ranked on page one.
Some hearsay and falsehoods:
1. “Reciprocal links don’t get counted”. False. They do and in a big way if they have enough anchor text as the keyword. More on this later.
2. Google and some of the search engine guru’s say it’s best to get “natural’, one-way “editorial links.” True. Depending on your site, this may be easy or this may be next to impossible. If your website explains how to beat the lotto, many will link to you. If the local dry cleaner just posts some prices and store hours, well, it doesn’t make it on to too many blogs.
3. If I trade links, will I be considered a link farm? No. There are many directories (Yahoo) that serve up 1,000’s of links. As a general rule, Google says to have no more than 100 links per page.
4. Google doesn’t like “links” pages. False. Many links come with a website’s description. There are sometime 2-3 sentences that follow a link. Multiply this by 50 and your links page has content. All those descriptions make for a unique web page. So what if they are 50 links? There are now 1000’s of words on that page as well. No problem, no biggie. I have seen some links pages with a Google PR of 3 or 4 – that’s a better rank than some home pages!
5. Too much anchor text as the keyword(s) will hurt me. False. From all the #1-#5 pages I have run back link checks on, over 70% of the links have keywords in the anchor text. Most if not all the links are reciprocal. And most of the links have a PR ranking of 2.7 or less.
6. Don’t link to sites that have low PR. False. Not an issue. Google doesn’t care who you link to as long it’s not in a bad neighborhood – gambling, porn, file sharing, etc. Amazon once linked to a PR 0 page because the page was very compelling (http://www.energyfiend.com/death-by-caffeine/).
So if you are not YouTube or Yahoo, or Facebook, how do I get links pointing to my site? By web page content & link swapping.
One, create valuable content, usually in the form of information that some one can use. If it’s good enough, some people may want to link to you. Further, if you have a separate “Link to me/us” page, you will start picking up one way links with the anchor text the way you want describing your site.
The second way is a little savvier. You ask another web master for a link from his site. But not just any site. You specifically target anywhere from 100-1000 sites that already have been “pre-approved” by Google. Say what? Well Google doesn’t maintain a bulletin board for you to check a good link from a bad one. But in effect it has.
Professional Link Swapping
Type in the keyword you want to rank for. Google will return 10 organic results on the left hand side. If there are forums or community type pages ignore them and go on to the next. Go to the second page of results if you need to get to ten. Just write down (or cut and paste) the urls to a text document.
Now enter each web site in the Google search box like this: link:website url. Example: link:http;//www.nobsphotosuccess.com. Google will return all the links to this web page it has in its index. Sometimes, it doesn’t return every link it’s indexed for various reasons; my guess because they don’t want you to know how many links it will take to rank for that term.
Save these links as a web page and repeat the process with the next 9 results. It’s a lot of work. But what it’s worth to you to be perpetually employed if you are getting page one Google traffic?
Now do the same for Yahoo if you want to uncover more links. The reason is that Yahoo and Google crawl each other. So Yahoo may index a link that has been crawled but not reported by Google. In Yahoo enter url into their Site Explorer or simply type in any Yahoo search box link:url.
Once you have compiled a list you are ready to contact each unique web site and ask the web master to exchange a link with you. Create your own “Link to us” page and refer him or her to that page. Even better, place his link on your site already before you email him and refer him to it. Ask him to send you his text link requirements with as much description he wants about his site with in reason.
Because he is exchanging links with other web masters, he probably will want to exchange links with you. Tell him you will leave his link on your site for 2 weeks. If he hasn’t linked to you after that period send him another email as a reminder. Typically, most will exchange links with you with in the first week.
This is still the bread and butter of SEO. Some say exchanging links is dead and it doesn’t work. Well, they are flat wrong. After all the speculation and theorizing, web pages that consistently rank first page in Google typically have a bunch (50 – 500) incoming links that have the keyword as the anchor text.
What if I’m already ranking on the first page and I don’t have any links coming in? Good question. It simply means you are ranking for a term that is not competitive enough to where it requires links. If your town is part of that keyword phrase, it could mean there are simply not enough web pages with proper content and structure to compete against yours. That’s good for you. But it might not always stay that way. Go out and get 10-20 links for good measure. The chances are your ranking won’t slip the next time Google does its dance – also know infamously as their “updates”.
Coming up next: Typical anchor text code for your link partners. Sample “Link to Me” html page. What keywords should I rank for? Where do I place my partners links? And advanced - but so easy to do – 3-way linking for incredible 1-way links.
In a very short time you will know the fundamentals of professional link building – probably even more than the guy at the support desk at many hosting companies. My goal is to keep it simple and basic. Plan on building your links over a 30 – 240 day period. Slow and steady is the best course. Do not dump 20 – 30 links on your page in a single day. What ever rate you add them, try to keep that rate all the time. Vary it a little here and there. Don’t add 20 link partners one day , 2 the next 17 the day after that and 8 the next day. Is it crucial? No. But, it may help you get your links indexed sooner than not.